Longtime radio personality Rod Davis dies

Jimmy Tomlin, The High Point Enterprise, N.C.
·3 min read

Mar. 18—TRIAD — Rod Davis, a longtime radio and television personality in the Triad known for his large personality and silky smooth voice, died Wednesday morning.

He was 68.

Former colleagues remembered Davis as a Triad treasure, both on and off the air.

"Whether you knew Rod in real life or over the radio, this is a tragic day," said Lora Songster, morning on-air personality at WMAG radio station, where she and Davis met in 1986, and where they later shared the airwaves on a morning radio show. "Everyone loved him. He was a legend, and his legacy will remain, because he was bigger than life."

According to Songster, Davis had good looks and a great radio voice, but also a charisma that transcended the airwaves.

"He was just magnetic," she said. "He obviously had the physical gift of being 6-foot-6 and being a doppelganger for Tom Selleck, and he had that booming voice. Men were jealous of him and women just wanted to meet him. When people met Rod, they walked away happy. He had charm and charisma, and it was natural."

Another former on-air colleague at WMAG, Jim Scott, agreed that Davis had so much more going for him than just his voice.

"He had that great voice, but he also knew how to use it," said Scott, who met Davis at WMAG in 1985. "A lot of people with good voices rely on that, just using their voice, but he brought warmth and charisma into it. He sounded like he was smiling, because he was. The real stars, the people that make an impact, are the ones who know how to use their gift, and Rod knew how to do that."

When Scott joined WMAG as an inexperienced 21-year-old announcer, Davis became a mentor for him.

"I was so lucky that someone of that talent and a disposition to help others walked into my world," he said. "He helped me so much. He not only taught me about the business, but he encouraged me to believe in myself, and I saw him do the same thing with others. He was the epitome of radio back in the day, and he was who I aspired to be like."

Davis, who lived in Greensboro, became well-known in the Triad when he joined the old "PM Magazine" show on WFMY in 1980, but he would go on to become better known for his radio work. Through the years, he was an on-air personality for a number of Triad stations, including WMAG, WKZL, 98.7 "KISS Country" and 94.5 "Cat Country." Most recently, he'd been doing voiceover work.

Davis' health had declined in recent years and took a precipitous drop this week, according to a public Facebook post by his daughter, Dana Tillett.

"With a heavy heart and guidance, we decided Comfort Care was where our dad needed to be," she wrote Tuesday. "His labs show he suffered a heart attack in the last 24 hours, most likely due to the strain on his heart."

Songster said WMAG will share memories of Davis on the air over the next two days, and the station has created a photo page of Davis for its website.

jtomlin@hpenews.com — 336-888-3579